This
Harper's Weekly cartoon glorifies Giuseppe Garibaldi, the
military leader of the Italian independence and unification movement, as
a liberator of the Italian people from their oppressive rulers. He
appears as Perseus, the mythical Greek hero who rescued Princess
Andromeda (here, Sicily) from a sea monster (here, "Bomba,"
King Ferdinand II of Sicily).

Giuseppe
Garibaldi was born into an Italian family in Nice, France. He
worked for a decade as a sailor before joining the navy of the Italian
kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia in 1833. Influenced by the ideas of Italian
nationalist Giuseppe Mazzini and French philosopher Count Saint-Simon,
Garibaldi participated in the failed 1834 plot to replace the Piedmont-Sardinia
kingdom with a republic. After fleeing to France, he was condemned
to death in absentia, so he exiled himself to South America
(1836-1848). In the late 1830s, he served as a navy captain for
the province of Rio Grande do Sul, which unsuccessfully revolted against
Brazilian rule. In the 1840s, his exploits with the Uruguayan navy
in a civil war pitting the "whites" against the
"reds" (his side) gained him acclaim in Europe.

In 1848, Garibaldi returned to Italy to lead a 60-member Italian
Legion in the fight for Italian independence (called
"Risorgimento," meaning "resurrection") against the
Austrian Empire. After fighting gallantly for several months,
Garibaldi had to retreat to Switzerland, from where he returned to
Nice. In 1849, he moved to Rome, where he was elected to the
assembly and proposed the unification of the various Italian states into
one republic. Garibaldi fought bravely but in vain against French
troops, who restored the Pope's authority over the Papal States.
He had become the "hero of two worlds," but was again forced
to flee to San Marino (the tiny Italian republic) to Morocco to Staten
Island, New York, and finally to Peru.

In 1854, Count Cavour, the prime minister of Piedmont-Sardinia,
allowed him to return home. Two years later, Garibaldi
unsuccessfully petitioned for the release of political prisoners held by
the Bourbon king of Naples. In 1858, Cavour commissioned him a
major general in the Piedmont-Sardinia army and assigned him to ready an army of
volunteers from other Italian states for war against Austria. In
1859, Garibaldi's troops captured Varese and Como in the northern
Italian region of Lombardy (adjacent to Piedmont), which its Austrian
rulers ceded to Piedmont-Sardinia at the war's end. Garibaldi next gained the
secret approval of the king of Piedmont-Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel II,
for an invasion of the Papal States, but the plan was tabled.

On May 6, 1860, two months
before this cartoon appeared, Garibaldi embarked on the conquest of the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (comprising Sicily, Naples, and much of
southern Italy) from its French Bourbon rulers. Neither Victor Emmanuel nor Cavour officially
supported him, but they agreed to back him if he demonstrated
success on the battlefield. Garibaldi's invasion of Sicily sparked
a popular revolution against the oppressive government of the island,
whose people looked upon him as a liberator.

Garibaldi proclaimed himself dictator,
in the name of Victor Emmanuel, and his impressive capture of Palermo
convinced Cavour to aid him militarily. After subduing the rest of
Sicily, he crossed to the mainland and made his way northward to
Naples. On September 7, 1860, Garibaldi triumphantly entered
Naples, and he and his 30,000 men quickly secured their conquest of the
region by defeating the French at the major battle of Volturno River,
north of Naples. Following popular plebiscites,
Garibaldi transferred authority over southern Italy to King Victor
Emmanuel.

The sea serpent in the cartoon
is Ferdinand II, the former ruler of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies,
who had degenerated over the years from a liberal monarch to an
authoritarian. In 1848, a liberal revolt in Naples compelled him
to adopt a constitution, but he soon ignored the document and resumed
his harsh ways. He reestablished control over Sicily through heavy
bombardments, which earned him the nickname of "King
Bomba." His death in May 1859 helped prepare the way for
Garibaldi's conquest and the subsequent incorporation of Sicily and
Naples into a united Italy.

Garibaldi captured the
attention of the world with his military adventures in Italy, becoming a
popular hero both in Italy and abroad among those who favored
constitutional government. President Lincoln offered him a
commission as a Union general during the American Civil War, which the
Italian patriot declined. Victor Emmanuel, Cavour, and other
Italian leaders, however, were wary of Garibaldi's popularity as well as
his anticlerical and republican views. After the Kingdom of Italy was
proclaimed in 1861, with Victor Emmanuel as its monarch, Garibaldi often
found himself in the opposition, criticizing the government's
administration of the provinces he had captured and of its treatment of
the war's veterans.

In 1862, Victor Emmanuel
recruited Garibaldi to drive the Austrians from the Balkans; instead,
Garibaldi led the volunteer army in an attack on the Papal States, whose
authority was ensured by French troops. Not wanting to antagonize
France, the Italian government dispatched Italian regulars to halt
Garibaldi's men. The rebel leader was wounded and captured, but
soon released after the king's role in the scheme became public.

In 1866, Italy again called
Garibaldi into service during the Austro-Prussian War (Seven Weeks' War)
during which Italy allied with the victorious Prussians. The next year,
he again unsuccessfully attacked the Papal States, was captured and
released. The French finally withdrew from the Papal States in
1870 during the Franco-Prussian War, and Rome voted to become the
capital of a united Italy. During the war, Garibaldi fought with
French republicans against the Prussians, and was later elected to the
French National Assembly, although he lived most of his later years as
an ailing recluse. He died June 2, 1882, at his home in Caprera,
Italy.